Developing a sign system or brand semiotics is a painstaking selection of signals and associations that shape brand perception.
How do you anchor a brand in consumers’ minds?
The brand sign system or brand semiotics are the signals and associations that shape brand perception. If certain brand characteristics are encoded in the form of verbal and visual symbols, they are read as signs. And already the sign evokes memories, knowledge, experience, experiences, which are stored in the memory and associated with it.
How does brand semiotics affect consumers?
About the sign system, as well as about branding in general, companies that live for today and do not work for the future may not think about it. But if you want to promote your product with clear expectations of how it is perceived by the target audience, do not let this moment go on its own.
The task of marketers is to cause the right reactions, to predict what response will cause different elements of the brand.
For understanding, let’s take a vivid example, the brand Ferrari. The main emotion the brand broadcasts to its target audience is a challenge. It is achieved through the use of such clear and easy to read signs:
The red color of cars affects the human body directly – dilation of pupils, increase in blood pressure, increase in tone
The masculine shape symbolizes animal strength and sexuality
The black and yellow color of the logo is a challenge to predators in the animal kingdom – try to attack
Horse on the hoof – masculinity and strength
In fact, you spent more time reading the descriptions of these symbols. If you now see a red Ferrari, your brain will unconsciously recognize the listed signals and form the necessary emotional response to the brand in just a couple of seconds.
There are many examples: the rounded shapes of car logos, which became a trend in the 2000s to signal safety and maternal care; the blue color of a can of condensed milk and a packet of sugar, signaling a sweet taste.
As you can see, not only big brands with multimillion-dollar advertising and promotion budgets are taking signals into account, but also companies producing different product groups.